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I like this topic! We like to use whole wheat when we can for pasta, bread, flour or what have you. And my boyfriend loves the applesauce trick you mentioned. I like to subsitute plain yogurt for dips or recipes that call for sour cream or mayonnaise too.

Hillary
Chew on That

If something is going to be a treat, like cookies, I don't try to make it healthier.

But for everyday dinners and such, I try to use whole grains instead of white ones whenever possible and beef up dishes with lots of grains and veggies instead of other things. And I use Parmesan cheese pretty often, because you can get a lot of flavor without using a lot.

When a recipe calls for butter, replace half the butter with half as much yogurt. For instance, instead of 1 cup butter, use 1/2 cup butter and 1/4 cup yogurt.

I try to replace refined white sugar and brown sugar with maple syrup, honey, and agave syrup. For diabetics (me), sugars with a lower glycemic index are better because they are used more slowly by the body. Also, sometimes they change the nature of the sweetness for the better. Works well in bars, quickbreads.

But nothing beats regular sugar in cookies for texture and mouth feel.

My bf doesn't eat refined sugar, so I use maple crystals in most baked goods - they're pricey but are an admirable substitute for granulated sugar. Agave nectar is great for preserves. I use half whole-wheat pastry flour in pie crusts and biscuits (actually like the flavor better than plain white). And I substitute melted coconut oil anytime a recipe calls for vegetable oil.

In chocolate goods, I've substituted baby food prunes for some of the oil rather than applesauce. The prunes seem to enhance the chocolate more and really add moistness. It's been years since I've done that, but I'm not much of sweets person.
Looking at my waistline right now; I really need to use some of the above tips and EXERCISE. Just say no to the chip aisle is my current grocery store mantra.

Lately I've been substituting bacon grease for lard and I feel much better !!!

I do not sub out ingredients in baked goods most of the time. I prefer real cream, butter, sugar etc. every time over subs, though I have often done the applesauce/pumpkin/prune/beet trick and some others also, and like it fine. When baking for people who have different dietary needs I will sub out more things/reduce calories or ingredient types (like baking for a diabetic or lactose intolerant, vegan, gluten-free etc.)
If I am subbing, it is for those type of reasons rather than just cutting calories.
Now I do like to play with different types of sugars/fats/milks etc. just for fun in baking, but it is never to cut calories, and in many cases adds more.

In other foods I like to sub out healthier grains and things when necessary, but I tend to cook fairly healthy as it is. (Dairy is my weakness, and no way will I eat diet cheese or skim milk or low-fat yogurt!) I skip processed foods almost entirely and eat almost no meat anymore, so I feel less bad about eating the full-fat yogurt, chocolate chip cookie, or the good cheese.

I have this fuss with my best friend often over subs like margarine. She would rather have that 'sort of' butter-like flavor in a large amount more often, while I would rather have the real thing, even if I have to eat much less of it compared to her serving of margarine.
Same with baked goods--I would rather have one bite of real, fantastic cheesecake, than a whole slice of 'low-cal'. Blech.
Now whether I stop at just one bite of that fantastic cheesecake....

I only sub when you really can't tell the difference in taste/texture, or when I actually prefer the lower fat version. I like Neufchatel better than cream cheese, I actually prefer Breakstone (and only Breakstone) light sour cream (not fat free) to their regular. I rarely use white bread, only whole grain. Same with rice. I only use white to make rice balls. I swap out whole wheat pasta only when it will work in a dish. I don't think it works with a simple marinara sauce, but it's great with thick, spicy veggie-loaded sauce.

I'd rather have a salad and half as much of a fattening thing than a low/fat free version. Fat free cheese/dairy products, salad dressings are disgusting (save the occasional fage yogurt, and even then, I prefer the low fat/full fat version).

I learned how to cook and bake heathfully. I made the whole wheat lasagne and it was very good.
Sub apple sauce (no sugar added of course) in place of butter in baked goods.
Olive oil mayo been using Mayoli for years.
We have a lot of olive oils and I use them in most everything I cook.
Sub some ground up oatmeal in place of flour in your cookies. Put it thru the processor.
I use 3/4 egg white and 1 regular egg in omeletes and frittatas.
We do a few meatless meals per week.

I improvise a lot, again not necessarily to lower calories, but sometimes just because I'm in the mood for experimentation. And if it works, I add that to my arsenal of things to do.

For example, I make my own yogurt and strain it to make it thicker. Then I use the whey instead of water when I make bread. This probably adds rather than reduces calories, but I suspect it adds some extra nutrition to the resulting bread.

Actually, in my mind, low calorie is not the same as healthy. Calories aren't inherently bad, it's only a problem if you eat too much. I'd rather have real olive oil and good vinegar on my salad than have that goopy lo-cal salad dressing that's filled with chemicals, colors, stabilizers and whatever else they put in there. To me, a healthy diet is a well-balanced one that packs decent nutrition into the allotted calories. Good thing is that I like salads and veggies and whole grains and I get enough of them along with my whipping cream and white rice.

Since much of my cooking is recipeless, I'm usually not making substitutions, but I suspect that I use more veggies and less meat than might be called for in similar recipes.

I use olive oil of some type for almost everything that needs oil, unless we're talking about high heat. Or unless the flavor of another oil is important.

But I'm not afraid of butter or bacon or sugar if that's what the recipe requires. I'd rather eat a little of something wonderful and decadent than have a lot of something that's disappointing. And I have no problem eating one cookie and walking away.

Whole grains for refined grains
Skim or 1% milk for 2% or whole
Lowfat cheese for full-fat cheese (if it won't effect the taste much)
Egg Beaters or egg whites for whole eggs
Oils with good fat (olive usually, sometimes canola) for unhealthy oils
Lean cuts of grass-fed beef (round, loin, etc, or 90% or more lean ground) for fatty cuts
No sugar added products when called for in recipes (natural PB, no sugar added applesauce, etc)
Reducing overall amount of oil, butter, and/or sugar
Adding extra veggies when appropriate

This is the story of my life... I am a vegetarian who loves to eat and most strictly vegetarian recipes out there are too "crunchy" for my taste buds... so I substitute everything in recipes I like:

whole grains anything - breads, rice, pasta, etc.
2% lactose free milk or soy milk when called for in recipes
Use brown sugar in baked goods
Egg replacer in baked goods that call for eggs
Silken tofu when making scrambles or frittatas
Eggless mayo for anything with regular mayo
I eat a Jel dessert to remember my times of eating orange-flavored J-ello
And if I like a recipe, I delete any bacon, anchovies, cod fish or other meat product from the mix... if the taste is compromised, I will never know.

Madelyn
KarmaFreeCooking

I prefer pure cane sugars to splenda. Your body can handle a pure unprocessed sugar. Demerara, turbinado, muscovado,brown sugar, pure cane, molasses, pure cane syrup, Lyle's golden and maple syrup. Your body can process these and they are good for you.
Splenda is sucralose an artificial sweetner. It is the processing of sugar which turns it bad. HFCS and processed sugars are not good for you. Pure sugars are better for you and can bring texture and flavor to baked goods. I use a lot of granulated pure cane in my baking.
If you get a chance switch out the white stuff for some pure sugar and see what it does to your baking.

I recommend everyone try this recipe from Nick Malgieri which I recommend because it takes the subs very well.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/11/dining/111brex.html
change out your fats (prunes or smart balance sticks)
Egg substitute
switch out the granulated for granulated pure cane (Dominos sells it everywhere even Walmart)
and see if you don't love these brownies. So good and moist.
Give it a try.

I've started using Ener-G Egg Replacer in some of my recipes, and I love it. It mimics what eggs do in recipes, and stores really well in my pantry.

I try to substitute resistant starch (Hi-maize Natural Fiber @ King Arthur Flour or Hi-maize 260 @ Honeyville Grains) for some of the flour in most of my baked goods. A heaping teaspoon of the one I buy from Honeyville contains 9 grams of total dietary fiber and you really can't tell it's in the baked good.

When I make chicken or tuna salad I substitute half of the mayo with whole grain mustard, you get the same consistency, a lot less fat, and a whole lot more flavor!

I use low-fat cream cheese to make tuna salad. Add a spoon of hot mustard and celery, onion and pickle, and it tastes even better than it does with mayo (and you'll need less to bind it together...I find a tablespoon per tin of tuna is enough).

I also use meat-replacements in things like pasta sauce and chili. I've even made perfectly good sloppy joes with fake meat. If you hate the idea of fake meat, very finely chopped mushrooms work well...use lots of onions and garlic to add flavour.

Julia Child used to swear cooked and pureed white rice made a good substitute for cream when making soups. Just add a little stock from the pan as you puree to get the right thickness.

i've been making flax seed crackers which have no flour in them, it's just flax seed meal which i've been using as a substitute for flour. i also make flax seed bread.....

people always ask for the flax seed cracker recipe because they taste very good.....

Nothing, cause I loves me the fat. I mean, I'm with dbcurrie - it's all about eating a little of something wonderful, rather than lots of something shitty. Sometimes I try to cut down the amount of sugar that goes in sweet recipes (not replace it), but this is due to personal taste rather than health consciousness. I think most sweet recipes are waaay too sweet. But cutting out sugar is tricky because sometimes it acts as a moist-trap or a stabilizer.

Oh! I often substitute whole fat yogurt for sour cream, but that's only 'cause I love yogurt. :)

Inspired by Matzoh Brei recipes, and too thrifty to discard yolks, we often stretch scrambled eggs with any sort of lightly broken up crackers soaked in the eggs--even Rye Krisps work if they're softened enough, and the rye adds flavor. And you can make egg salad with fewer, but real and whole eggs, if you stretch it with a few spoonfuls of cooked rice and again, something fragrant like Basmati just adds flavor.

I've developed a healthier version of a "fish taco" that my friends and family enjoy. Instead of fried fish I use poached. Instead of shredded cabbage, I use broccoli slaw and instead of a yogurt or creme based sauce I use chunky guacamole. I add sriracha sauce to add spice to mine.

Oil - applesauce or coconut oil
Sugar - agave or honey
White flour - whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat
Sour cream - yogurt
Butter - 1/2 butter 1/2 coconut oil
Flours - 1/2 almond meal 1/2 flour

on and on and on... i love substituting!

@dbcurrie - yeah! WTF?!